Fruitcake

Background

The fruitcake bears the brunt of many holiday jokes in forums as varied as
the Sunday funny pages and boxes of greeting cards. One entrepreneur
manufactures fruitcakes—and sells them for use as doorstops. Yet
the fruitcake has historical associations with the Holy Land, and its
internal bounty is said to represent the gifts of the Wise Men. Like many
other fruit breads and cakes, it has been venerated since Medieval times
when fruit in the wintertime was an extraordinary treat. Modern fruitcakes
are based on traditional recipes that are cherished among families, but,
thanks to mail-order catalogues and a wide variety of fruitcakes among
manufacturers, new twists for this familiar friend abound.

History

History and lore mingle in the retelling of the fruitcake story. The
ancient Egyptians made fruitcake for their departed loved ones to carry
with them to the afterlife. The dense cake and preserved fruit were
thought to withstand the journey, and the riches of the fruits and nuts
communicated the wealth of the consumer and the family's esteem for
their relative. The Middle East overflowed with the variety of dates,
citrus fruit, and nuts that were virtually unknown in Northern Europe
until the Crusades. Returning Crusaders brought fruit with them, but the
trade that was initiated was frequently interrupted by war, and, of
course, the fruit was highly perishable. These dilemmas were partially
solved by drying or candying the fruit for travel, and, when the fruit
reached Northern Europe, it was shared by mixing it in breads and cakes.
Because the fruit came from the Holy Land, it was also revered and saved
for feast days, particularly Christmas and Easter.

The Austrians reencountered the bounty of Middle Eastern fruit when the
Turks lay siege to Vienna in the seventeenth century. In gratitude for
having survived that face-off, the Viennese served German turban cake, or
gugelhupf,
with its filling of raisins, citron, lemon and orange peel, almonds, and
spices on Christmas morning. Similarly, the Scandinavians bake fruit
breads and cakes variously called
julekage, julekakke,
or
julebrod
at Christmas time; like fruitcake, these contain fruits, nuts, and exotic
spices and are glazed. The German Christmas bread called stollen and the
Italian holiday bread known as panettone are other close kin for the
fruitcake. They are characterized by variations in the bread or cake base,
choices among fruit and nuts (panettone, for example may be baked with
pine nuts), and the optional addition of rum or brandy. Italian panettone
is a Milanese tradition surrounded by legend. Supposedly, eggs and fruit
were used to make bread for the poor only at holiday times. Panettone
became associated with the unification of Italy during the uprisings of
1821 when the traditional raisins were replaced with red cherries and
green citron to represent the Italian tricolor flag. Still other similar
traditions are Russian Easter bread, known as
kulich
and topped with lemon icing, and Irish fruit bread, which is called
barmbrack,
and accompanies Halloween and All Saints Day festivities.

The English fruitcake or Christmas cake reached its heyday in Victorian
times when, with the introduction of the Christmas tree and other festive
customs, religious traditions

First, the dry and liquid ingredients are mixed separately. Once
mixed, they
are
combined and fruit and nuts are added.

exploded into colorful, season-long celebrations. Fruitcakes (and other
fruit-bearing holiday treats like the plum pudding and Irish plum cake)
were made well in advance of the holidays. The cakes were wrapped in
cheesecloth that had been soaked in brandy; periodically, the cheese-cloth
was resoaked and the cakes rewrapped to absorb the liquid. The day before
Christmas, the cakes were unwrapped, coated with marzipan or almond paste,
further coated with royal icing that dried and hardened, and then glazed
with apricot glaze. These Christmas cakes demonstrated such abundance that
the same kind of cake is used today in England as wedding cake, and it has
the advantage of preserving well for anniversary celebrations.

Raw Materials

Fruitcake character is largely determined by the wealth of fruit and nuts
it contains. These can include a whole range or be limited to selected
fruit or nuts, depending on the recipe, taste, or market. Fruit can
include lemon and orange peel, raisins, dates, currants, figs, apricots,
cherries, citron (the preserved rind of the citron fruit, which is similar
to a lemon), and pineapple. These fruits are all preserved, dried,
candied, or glazed so that much of their natural moisture is removed, and
they will keep longer. The cherries and pineapple in particular may also
be colored with food coloring. Nuts include walnuts, pecans, almonds, and
pine nuts; broken pieces are incorporated in the cake, but walnut or pecan
halves may be used to decorate the outside. Most fruitcake bakers purchase
fruit and nuts from specialty manufacturers or suppliers.

Spices are other key ingredients that harken back to the Middle Eastern
heritage of the fruitcake. Cinnamon, cloves, allspice, and nutmeg are most
typical of fruitcakes. Because the blend of spices greatly influences the
cake flavor, these are carefully guarded secrets. Liquids include eggs,
molasses, other syrups, fruit juices, and liquors of

The batter is poured into cake pans and baked slowly.

which rum and brandy are the most popular. The cake itself is made of
high-quality flour, salt, baking powder, brown sugar, and butter. Again,
these ingredients are purchased directly from suppliers.

Design

The choice of fruit and nuts to be included is subject to availability and
the taste of the baker. The spice blend for most manufacturers is
carefully guarded, and the proportion of cake to fruit is also a design
choice. Ideally, the cake is delicious by itself, but its molasses and
brown sugar ingredients (not common to other cakes) are added to help the
fruit stick together with the cake as a minimal matrix. Rum and brandy
leave their flavor but no alcoholic content because the alcohol is driven
off during baking. While these potent potables are flavorful, the choice
of making fruitcake intoxicating rests with the consumer who can adjust
the cake's moisture level by wrapping it in soaked cheesecloth. If
the consumer chooses to do this, any favorite liquor flavor, such as wine,
fruit juice, liqueurs, or the traditional brandy or rum can be used. The
designer may also select the shape of the fruit-cake. Collin Street
Bakery, the largest producer of fruitcake in the world, prefers a ring
shape, while circular and loaf-shaped cakes are also manufactured.

The Manufacturing
Process

In the bakery, the liquid and dry ingredients are mixed separately and
then blended together. In large bowls, a generous proportion of fruit
and nuts is mixed with the cake dough until the surfaces of the fruit
are coated.

The rich mixture with its sparkling cherries is scooped into baking pans
lined with greased paper that prevents the sugary fruit from burning
against the sides of the metal pans. The pans and their contents are
weighed to produce uniform products, and the pans are placed on conveyor
belts that carry them past a team of inspectors.

The inspectors watch for excessive variations and arrange the nuts and
cherries so they show to best advantage. The fruit and nuts will not
move in the cake once they are in place, so the appearance of the cake
before it is baked will be much the same as the finished product.

The cake pans that have passed inspection are placed on large trays that
are loaded into a 5 ft (1.5 m) tall industrial baking rack. The entire
rack is rolled into a rotating convection oven for the baking process,
which is also a well-guarded secret. Because this type of cake is dense
rather than airy and because of the fruit and sugar contents, fruit
cakes are baked at relatively low temperatures for a long time to drive
off the moisture without singeing the fruit. The racks are wheeled out
of the convection oven, and the cakes are left in their pans to cool.

After the cakes are cooled, they must be wrapped and packaged quickly
before they begin to reabsorb moisture from the air. The cakes are
removed from their pans, and the paper lining is striped off the cakes.
Some manufacturers decorate the finished surfaces with sugared nuts or
extra fruit, and some apply a syrup glaze. Following any decorative
steps, the fruitcakes are packaged, usually in an inner wrap of
decorative cellophane that is seated on a lace doily and a piece of
fruitcake-sized cardboard. This inner set of packing is placed in a box
or ornamental tin and sealed. That container may also be sealed in an
outer box for store display, mailing or shipment.

Quality Control

Quality control begins with the selection of ingredients including the
most beautiful candied fruit that should be free of discolorations and
tough pieces and should shine like the colors in a stained glass window.
Spices and liquors are the other ingredients that give flavorful character
to the fruitcake, and they must be fresh and true to their flavors with no
sharp twangs or bitterness. During the mixing processes, the ingredients,
mixtures, and machinery are monitored carefully. The fruitcake bakers take
tremendous pride in their product and scrutinize its quality. The
inspection team along the assembly line prior to baking performs the most
detailed check while arranging the surficial nuts and fruit. The cakes are
inspected again as they are packed, but, after the fruitcakes have been
baked, they are virtually indestructible and will last years if kept in
cool, dark storage.

The Future

Even in our age of cholesterol-consciousness and health concerns, the
fruitcake has an upwardly trending future. If a diet is to be broken, it
is most likely to fall by the wayside during the holidays. Fruitcakes may
bear the brunt of many jokes, but they are still firmly implanted in our
collective holiday traditions. Fruitcakes are also an adult and acquired
taste, not only because of the liquors but because of the complex blend of
spices and other flavors that usually appeal more to grownups. Collin
Street Bakery makes 1.6 million fruitcakes per year and ships this
product, totaling four million lb (approximately two million kg), to
customers in all 50 states and 200 countries.

Several monasteries in the United States, including the Assumption Abbey
in the Ozark Mountains of Missouri, the Abbey of Gethsemani in Trappist,
Kentucky, and the Our Lady of Guadalupe Trappist Abbey in Carlton, Oregon,
are recent entrants in the race to produce the best fruitcake. The 14
monks of Assumption Abbey create 23,000 fruit-cakes per holiday season to
finance their less worldly vocations. Furthermore, fruit-cake baking
doesn't require much conversation, so the monks can maintain their
vows of silence while fully supplying customers by mail order and e-mail.
Fruitcakes, therefore, may also help us maintain a connection with the
religious origins of holidays in these commercial times.

User Contributions:

I am a longtime purchaser of ur fruit cakes at Christmastime. A friend just sent me one in sealed box and in tin properly wrapped, etc.
The only code I find is CSBZ NOOT on can 10100 under barcode on box. If this was perhaps left over from last Christmas, is it safe to
eat?

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